FREEDOM
by The Sweetest Venom
Summary: Freedom has a price. Especially when it's freedom of life style. Things get hard for Dawn, Jimmy, and Ash when their world gets small... painfully small. Story centers on skeletons in the closet and inherited curses. T for language.  being rewritten.
1. revival

First off, to everyone who has ever followed me on my account, I apologize. But that's not what this story is about.  
This is a story about family, regret, and the undeniable urge to get what you want. This is FREEDOM.

* * *

_i once was told  
so very long ago  
that freedom has  
a price but i don't  
have to pay it now_

"Dawn?"

She put down the phone, looked up at her mother, wide blue eyes innocent and expecting. Ash had just left, she was booking with Paris to possible do some work on the Orange Islands, and she had just managed to start a flirty cyber relationship with Drew. Her week couldn't get any more exciting and confusing...

could it?

Johanna pressed her lips together, wondering how to say this. "Honey," she started, "I should have told you this sooner, shouldn't be pressuring you into this right now." She sat down on her daughter's bed, seeing the fear enter her eyes. "You've got a brother in Johto, his name is Jimmy... though I hear he goes by Ethan now."

_'What?'_ Dawn mentally screamed, unable to understand what her mother was telling her.

"Listen, I've got things to manage since your... father-"

"I thought you said he was dead?"

"He was to me!" Johanna screamed, but calmed herself. She looked down. "Your father, his and yours, is in Sinnoh, looking for you. I've got things to explain when you come back, but please, go to Johto and find Jimmy, er, Ethan. He probably won't know you... just, bring him home."

Dawn breathed deeply, kept calm from all her adventures with Brock and Ash. Oh, where were they when she needed them? "When should I leave?"

"Now."

Dawn nodded, getting up to start packing different things. "... I'll ask Kenny and Zoey if they feel like going."

Johanna got up, put a hand on Dawn's shoulder. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry..."

She was unable to look away from her mother, unable to feel hurt. She was curious of what was true and what wasn't, but she only hugged the older woman. "You'll explain everything when I get back, okay?"


	2. high

_i love you  
with all my  
effort because  
a heart is something  
i just don't have anymore_

Kenny and Zoey were truly her best friends. They had jumped on the chance, shouting how they were truly her companions and would never let her down. Paris, her scout/manager, of course understood but warned there would be no progress and no pay.

Dawn could put up with that. She could not deal with having a brother she didn't know about running around in Johto. So, the very first boat available was taken. Rashly packed and exhausted from their travel, the trio sprawled various places during the turbo-speed boat's travel, trying to avoid getting sea sick and get some rest.

"What pokemon did you bring?" Some one asked it, maybe Kenny.

Dawn answered first, always rash and quick witted. "My team doesn't vary too much, you know. Piplup, buneary, pachirisu, mamoswine, quilava, and togekiss." She thought about it. "I'll go fetch ambipom once we find my brother, though."

Zoey nodded. "Yeah. You couldn't let her come back from ping-pong and go 'WHO DAT'," she said, even adding a monkey-voice. "My team's pretty static, too. Glameow, mismagius, gastrodon, lumineon, gallade, and leafeon." She grinned cheekily as glameow ran under her chair, tiny magikarp in her cattish mouth. The gray puss mewled at piplup, who also wished for a fishy dinner.

"I've got empoleon, alakazam, breloom, machoke, floatzel... I need another pokemon." Kenny sat up as empoleon dumped a small school of minature magikarp right where he had been sitting. The huge penguin chirped to the smaller and the cat. The trio dinned on the fish. The trainers realized after a moment that they were not real magikarp, but bits of what was one some fish pokemon cut into decorative food bits.

Zoey laughed. "This is crazy."

"Life's crazy," Dawn replied.

* * *

I don't capitalize pokemon names. Why? Because you don't say Dog instead of dog.


	3. stupid

_familiar territory  
is the most odd_

Johto wasn't too different from Sinnoh, she decided. From the moment she stepped into the port of Olivine City, she felt as if she had stepped into a parallel universe. So, this is where her maternal other half was. Would he know about their father? What clues to her past that she had formerly so easily accepted would he bring to her, to shatter their existence.

She only realized she was hyperventilating when Zoey handed her a bag.

Kenny was looking around, sharp eyes searching for the certain shade of blue that seemed to run in Dawn's bloodline. He spotted no one with that oh-so exclusive charcoal-over-steel-blue coloring. He grunted before deciding a simpler way to handle this would be to check in with the local Nurse Joy. He quietly wondered if that was their last name and what their first was. "Com'mon," he said, explaining his plan as the gaggle of girls and pokemon followed him.

The nurse was at first wary to give away information of who had been by, but when Dawn pulled her aside to inform her of what had happened, the nurse replied that she hadn't seen any Ethans or Jimmys. A quick telephone call told the trio of trainers that someone fitting their description had been spotted in Mahogany Town, though.

Dawn grunted. "It'll take forever to get there!" She wanted so desperately to see this person she had never met. Her brother, her brother...

Kenny shook his head, disappointed in Zoey and Dawn's lack of creativity. "We all have pokemon that can fly, or at least levitate." The girls looked at him before allowing their faces to ease into simplistic shame. Kenny smirked proudly.


	4. paradox

_i dreamed of flying, once  
too bad i'm scared of heights_

"We're never doing this again!" Zoey screamed as mismagius rocketed her body behind Dawn's togekiss. Kenny grinned, enjoying a smoother ride with the external partner of alakazam. Seeing how Zoey was being possessed (and screaming) the other two assumed that being yanked around in the air by an internal foreign force wasn't too pleasant. The improbability of the situation only seemed to stress Zoey out more.

Dawn sighed, wishing togekiss could bear more than her own meager weight for Zoey's sake, but it turned out the jubilee pokemon just couldn't handle it. The blue eyed girl turned to a proper sitting position, watching the setting sun signal either a camp out or a rush to Mahogany Town. She didn't want to camp out; she wanted to get to this ninja-wood town.

Kenny rolled forward, happy expression signaling that he had spotted the town. Using his mental connection with alakazam, he gently glided down from the sky. "There it is." The town was barely the size of Twinleaf Town, so they all felt cozy... except for Zoey. Poor girl.

Dawn had to wonder if this was something familiar to her supposed brother. She had so many questions. What did he know that was truth and what would she have to find out together with him?

The trio walked through out the town, finding out that Ethan, as he wished to be called now, was at the Lake of Rage. Dawn grinned cheekily, figuring her brother would also be drawn towards water-lakes especially. She ran up hill, desperate to meet her brother. Zoey ran after her, having seen one too many movies where this didn't end well. The brooding fashion that the gray evening wind swirled wasn't helping anything.

* * *

I've got that, too-scared of heights, wanting wings. Hmph.


	5. rend

_you show up now, when things are getting good  
will you melt away, like sugar, when the storms return?_

Jimmy sat at the shore of the Lake of Rage, eyes narrow. After going to battle Ash again under the guise of Ethan (how it took him fifteen minutes to figure out who he was was beyond him!) he was still in raged. That girl from back then was etched into his memory and he didn't know why. She hadn't paid a bit of attention to him. Maybe it was because Marina was busy with work during that week.

Speaking of Marina, she decided to skip a stone across the lake shore just thing. As of recently, she had taken to wearing disguise while in public as well, dying her hair a darker blue with a rinse and wearing baggy, more 'sporty' clothes while going around as Kris, a boyish name. No one hardly ever figured the duo out.

"You've been troubled for the past month," she said simply. This was her third and final time to inquire. If he shut her out again, she wouldn't wonder why any more. He was beginning to frustrate her.

Jimmy turned around, more mature face dark with some kind of emotion he couldn't properly express. Finally, he said something. "... I'm thinking of another girl, Marina, and I don't want to." He stood up, held her close and hated himself fully. "I don't know why, but I feel as if I've known her from somewhere, like her face should bring about a name."

Marina, understanding that Jimmy's lust-heart might go wondering while his love-heart stayed home, listened. He was trying hard for her, that was all she could do. She pulled back, examing him. "Who was she? Where did you meet?"

Jimmy shook his head. "I don't know. She actually looked like a female version of me..." He laughed at his narcassistic comment. "Anyway, she was with Ash when I battled him a bit ago." He sat down and watched beedrill hoover over the water. "I wish Eusine was here. He would know what to do."

Marina was about to say something when she heard foot steps in the woods behind them. She turned around, expecting a fisherman even though it was extremely late for them to be out. Most of them fished early morning to midday, relaxing at home the rest.

Jimmy gasped as he saw the trio come out of the woods. The blue haired girl ...

"You," he and she said at the same time, both struggling to maintain any kind of balance as they stiffly walked towards each other, each for different reasons. Before Dawn could wrap him in a hug and cry to her supposed brother, Jimmy drew back.

"Let's go, Marina." He ducked around the three, not waiting for beedrill and his girlfriend to arrive behind him.

Dawn's eyes widened, unable to accept what had just happened. "Wait!" He halted, Marina confidently holding his hand. They looked ready to fight. What would they do if she had the wrong person? What if

"You might be my brother."

* * *

I'm not that nice.


	6. hate?

_am i supposed to love you?  
i won't fake an emotion_

That was not how Jimmy was expecting this to go. The orphan growled, eyes narrowing. "The fuck did you say?" He rarely cussed, even under the name Ethan. Marina grabbed his arm, holding him back.

Kenny and Zoey were on edge as well, noticing the dangerous looking beedrill hover closer. Its wing beats were like individual threats.

Dawn spoke up, mouth dry. "Y-you might be my brother. Your name is Jimmy... or Ethan, as you are now called, is it not?" She found herself picking up the dialect of a certain princess under her stress. "Erm, um, our-our mother is..."

Jimmy walked forward, looked down at the tiny girl. "My parents are dead, you sick bitch." The turned away, Marina following with consolations. Beedrill glared at them for a moment more before flying after his master.

Dawn fell to her knees, unsure and even more questioning. What if he was wrong and that was a cover story he was believing? What if it wasn't? She felt so horrible she could vomit, because what if his parents really were dead?

Where was her brother?


	7. sahara

_i forget who i owe a debt to  
so i'm grateful to everyone_

Johanna walked through the forest, to where she remembered it all happening. "Mesprite," she begins. "Mesprite." Tears begin falling from her face. Why did she ever agree to this? Eating the dust-powder of any legendary's body was never a good idea. Especially when it was the grinded horn bits of Suicune or the red diamonds of Mesprite.

After moments of walking, wading really, into the water, a blurry pink light floated to Johanna. It questioned her and the woman replied calmly. "He's back... and it's not innocent this time." The emotion pokemon nodded as best as it could in this form before returning below sea level. Johanna left the lake, headed to go farther north, where Suicune might contact her if she tried hard enough.

She could always ask Leona to throw off her disguise, but that would be just plain cruel. The few days that poor girl got to pretend she was not some reincarnated, pitiful beast were far and few in between. Especially with Raikou pinning after her, trying to reignite the romance.

"Poor dear," Johanna said as she put her shoes back on.

"No, they're fine, I checked." A voice from above. Johanna looked up, eyes widening, terrified. No, he wasn't supposed to find her yet. She pulled out a pokeball of her shorts, now back in training clothes. She sent out her pokemon, a kangaskhan.

It was a futile effort. The ex-lover's own haunter quickly put the khangaskhan out for a dangerous nap. Johanna returned her khangaskhan and sent out umbreon. The evolved eevee hissed, remembering Eusine. He formed a shadow ball, flinging it at the haunter who phased out before using a quick attack to get to Eusine in the trees.

A swift thunder attack stopped the tiny fox, though. Eusine seemed to understand the odds were against him... for now. He recalled his electrode and instructed his haunter to make them disappear.

Johanna stomped the ground before petting umbreon, who was still growling at her side. "We've got to hurry. If he finds out about the kids..." She knew she would have to have a family meeting soon, but she wasn't looking forward to it.

* * *

Who were you really expecting?


	8. pair

_this hurts  
that's life_

"Dawn, you don't have to do this," Zoey said as the three of them raced after the couple. This insane challenge was lasting a very long while. Jimmy's huge typholsion was doing a fine job of outrunning mamoswine, but the larger of the two was making short work of the shrubbery that the smaller had to leap over.

Dawn squared her shoulders before pulling out her own quilava. She released it and order it to track down it's evolution and persuade it to stop. She then returned mamoswine, letting herself and her friends fall to the ground. The three preteens panted heavily, tried. Shortly after, Jimmy and Marina returned, typholsion gently holding quilava in his mouth.

Dawn looked back at Zoey and Kenny, smiled at them. "I have to... you have no idea." She stood up, faced her so-called brother.

Jimmy looked her up and down. "Why should I believe you?"

"Can you prove me wrong?" A weak reply.

He sighed, suddenly leaning on Marina who let them both crash down gently. Typhlosion and quilava sat between the possible siblings and watched, intrigued. "... I can't. I don't actually know if my parents are dead. I'm an orphan, you understand. Whenever I asked about my parents, everyone looked away, like it was a tradgety."

Dawn swallowed, smiling at him. "Yeah, Mom made it seem pretty traumatic." She suddenly grew serious. "She said I needed to bring you back with me, that it was of dire importance."

The older brother looked up at his sister, assuming all was correct. He smiled. "We aren't doing anything... and I would like to meet my mother."


	9. roar

_horror is simple  
all you need is a bomb_

Johanna cringed, choking on her own blood. It should figure she would run into Leona and Raikou at the wrong time. She looked up to her uncle through her good eye and laughed. "Didn't you say what goes up must come down?"

The white haired man panicked before barking at Johanna Wano. "Not if the object at rest stays at rest, you idiot!" He watched his neice fall asleep in the hospital. Rowan growled, figuring Eusine had gotten whatever information he had been desiring from the insanity between Leona-who turned out to be a female Entei of all things!-and Raikou. Then he had the nerve to intoxicate his ex-wife.

The low life. Rowan got out his phone and dialed. "Reggie? You still as strong a trainer as you were back in the day? Good. I'll pay you for your trouble, but I need you to come watch over someone for me."

* * *

i adore reggie. he had to come in at one point.


	10. heresies

_the past is scary  
because you weren't there for it  
because you have to trust  
what they say is true  
is true_

Ash was getting a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, like preminotion. He turned to Iris sleeping beside him in the wilds. The others were there, but he doubted they would explain this feeling about him... something primeval.

"Iris," Ash hissed out. He felt something familiar within him screaming, like static radio ringing in his ears. "I-wha"

The dragon queen smiled at him, obviously more in tune with pokemon than him, obviously more in tune with him. She smirked her feral way before petting pikachu, who was very awake and looking around. "Go look, follow the sounds. You'll figure it out... and if you don't, it's not worth it." She then cuddled herself back to sleep, leaving Ash confused but

something was pulling within him and he followed it, taking only pikachu. He dropped off his other pokemon in a center. Together, they could solve anything.

Especially when the two became four.

"Ritchie?" Ash questioned softly, heisitant as a deer, atoms changing and fusing within his brain, like some wild beast. Was it this Unova air, rich with dark electricity and hearts of things not quite human but more than pokemon?

Things like him?

Ritchie stepped forward to ask, sniffed him, felt the crackle of electricity. He was terrified for half a moment, but the other was confused joy. "I... saw Zapdos. I've heard Raikou is rampaging." Why was this important? It felt important. Like breathing.

Neither understood it, but an urge to return was uncontrolable. The duo, along with their pikachus, ran like the wind, made sparks in the night as they raced towards the ocean and

they weren't sure how they ended up in Sinnoh in the morning.

* * *

trippy enough yet?


	11. sorry

_how many times  
did i not say goodbye?_

Oak pulled on hats and clicked together suit cases. Gary looked at him, confused. "Where ya' going, Gramps?"

Oak huffed. "You remember my cousin and college, Rowan, right?" The boy nodded. "His neice recently got into an injury and lots of disturbing things have been happening." Oak sighed. "Her daughter's not around either."

Gary looked curiously at his grandfather, nevering hearing much about cousin Rowan in Sinnoh due to a bit of a (bitter) rivalry. "What're name? I might be able to get some guys to go look for 'er."

"Johanna's daughter's name is Dawn."

* * *

i gave gary an accent. wanna fight about it? ;c


	12. protagonist

_i feel too full  
like a corpse_

Dawn and Jimmy spent most of the ride trying to peice together their childhood. From what they figured out, Jimmy was about a year and a half older than Dawn, who went ahead and rounded it up to two years for timeline's sake. They then figured out that within the course of that time, Jimmy had been out of the orphanage (and with mother) for at least three years because he remembered her eyes. Aside from a character name Eusine who seemed to play a big role-or wanted to play a big role-in Jimmy's life, there seemed to be no one else who knew the 'truth'.

Marina and Zoey were getting along well enough, leaving Kenny feeling left out... again. He grunted, deeply upset by all this. Eventually, when Dawn and Jimmy felt enough like siblings without being siblings, they returned to their gender groups and the night went along normally as it could.

Still, when night fell, Dawn found herself on the 'girls's side of the room', with Ethan-mode Jimmy sharking Kenny away from the forbidden side, not that the gentleman would go over.

When morning came and they got off the boat on Sinnoh, Dawn felt as if she were on cloud nine. She had a new brother and

"Hia guys, how are you? I don't think you've met Ritchie!"


End file.
